Introduction

reviving a sociology of willing selves

Sabine Maaßen

Barbara Sutter

pp. 1-19

in: Sabine Maaßen, Barbara Sutter (eds), On willing selves, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007

Abstract

Most recently, the neurosciences have become fashionable in society. They stimulate all kinds of initiatives: neuro-didactics, neuro-theology, neuro-economy, and neuro-technology inspire educational, spiritual, industrial, or "neuro-ceutical" approaches to governing selves and society alike. Call it hype or horror: the recent fad, provocatively stated, is ultimately about brainy selves happily living in neuro-society explained by the neurosciences and largely regulated by neuro-technologies. In truth, while this abbreviated storyline is, as yet, only part of the daydreams of single entrepreneurs in the domain of consulting (see Lynch, 2004), it has already affected general media discourse. Various applications of the neurosciences have attracted journalists' interest. More often than not, the findings have been glossed over in a more humoristic note. Neuro-marketing, for instance, is being mocked as revealing insights that are not really new with the help of costly experimentation and instrumentation. Above all, neuro-marketing seems to have found out that favorite brands are favored by our brains, too (Schnabel, 2003).